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Lunch Break: Heavenly Inexpensive Lunch

End the week right with ethereal, delicious, cheap food in today's New York Lunch Break. By Yvo Sin.

Wah Mei Fast Food

(credit: feistyfoodie.com)

190 Hester Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 925-6428

At Wah Mei, when you order the pork chop over rice (pictured), the marinated pork chop is placed in a deep fryer to cook. A big scoop of rice is pressed into the bottom of a plastic container, a ladle from the giant vat of pork sauce constantly cooking away is poured over the top, along with some pickled mustard greens, cooked Napa cabbage, and before you know it, the pork chop has been removed from the hot oil, crammed on top of the rice and sauce, then a lid unceremoniously jammed on top of all of that. You hand over your $4.50, or, if you were smart, $4.95 because you asked for a tea egg to be added to the platter, and you walk out, inhaling the wonderful aroma of a marinated, deep fried pork chop. When you finally open the container, hands shaking a little from excitement and hunger, the smell hits you and you dig into this pork chop, with crisp edges, salty everywhere, mixing bits of the tea egg with the rice. You marvel at how addicting the brown pork sauce is, and realize you could eat a bowl of fluffy white rice with just that topping it – but why would you want to? That crisp, juicy pork chop has just changed your life, the way you see pork chops, and nothing will ever be the same again.

Smorgas Chef

(credit: feistyfoodie.com)

53 Stone Street
New York, NY 10004
(212) 422-3500
smorgas.com/index_wallstreet.htm

283 W. 12th Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 243-7073
smorgas.com/index_westvillage.htm

58 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016
(212) 847-9745
smorgas.com/index_scandinaviahouse.htm

With three locations from which to choose, Smorgas Chef makes it easy for you to get your fill of Swedish meatballs and lingonberry sauce at any time, without the trip to Ikea. Of course, if you limit your exposure to Scandinavian food simply to Ikea's offerings, you do yourself, and the cuisine, a great disservice – try the house-cured gravlaks club (pictured), a towering sandwich on eight grain bread with avocado, romaine, tomato, bacon, spicy tartar sauce, and of course, the house-cured gravlaks. Gravlaks is salmon that has been cured in salt, sugar and dill. Or you can stick to the Swedish meatballs, which you can have three ways: as an appetizer, served with lingonberry sauce over mashed potatoes; in a sandwich with lingonberries and mashed potatoes; or entree-sized, with lingonberry sauce over mashed potatoes. Whatever your choice, you can't go wrong: the meatballs are tender, and complemented wonderfully by the lingonberry sauce… and float atop a cloud of great mashed potatoes in either the appetizer or the entree order.

My Uncle's Steakhouse, Restaurant & Parrillada (Mi Tio)

Mi Tio
(credit: feistyfoodie.com)

89-08 Queens Boulevard
Elmhurst, NY 11373
(718) 426-8080

My Uncle's Steakhouse is as authentic as its prices: South American cuisine for rock bottom prices that truly cannot be beat. The entraña completa (complete skirt steak, pictured) can easily feed a person for two or three meals at the justifiable price of $28.95. But the lunch specials, served Monday through Friday from 11:30a to 3:30p, include a 1/4 skirt steak with your choice of side order (French fries, salad, Russian potato salad, rice & beans, oven roasted potatoes or simply rice), for just $8.50 - a deal if ever there was one. If that seems a bit too heavy for your midday meal, not to worry, because the lunch specials also include lighter fare, such as a sausage sandwich ($6.50 with soup & soda, or $6.95 with French fries & soda), steak sandwich ($6.95/7.50), or 1/2 grilled chicken with soup ($7.50). Mi Tio even has pernil - lunch special price of $7.95 with a side - though you might do better sticking to the South American specialties.

For the latest on where to eat in the Tri-State, follow us on Twitter!

Yvo Sin is the founder and head writer of The Feisty Foodie.

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